Debbie
didn’t drink. Didn’t smoke.
Didn’t chase boys. Didn’t cuss (much). Tried to be kind to others (except her
siblings). Did a decent job obeying her parents. Was an A/B student. Debbie was what people considered to be a “good
girl.”

Debbie
doesn’t have a powerful testimony of ash heaps transforming into mountains of beauty. She
had a good upbringing. She was solid. Reliable. Responsible.
In fact, almost right after she
surrendered her life to Jesus, telling Him she was sorry for all she’d done
wrong, that she loved Him and wanted to be with Him in heaven, she added, “I
don’t think You’ll have to change me too much.
I’m pretty good really.”

It
was many years later that she finally got it through her thick skull that “good”
doesn’t really cut it. “Kind of good”
and “pretty good” and “really really good” are not points on a Ruler of Righteousness.
A human being simply cannot be “good enough,” or even “better than so-and-so.”

What
finally smacked her out of her prideful delusion was Romans 14:22-23, So whatever you believe about [eating
“unclean” food] keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not
condemn himself by what he approves.But whoever
has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith;
and everything that does not come from
faith is sin.

That definition of righteousness moved her “good point”
waaaaaaaay down the scale. She realized
that when self-protection, self-indulgence, self-reliance, and self-centeredness
were in action, she was not acting in faith.
She was acting in sin.

Sin itself took on a whole ‘nother realm of meaning
for her that day.

She was buried in baptism and raised to eternal
life when she was 16. She continues to learn and grow in dying to
herself every day.

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